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His Tips Were as Good as His Word

When Eliot Spitzer was aggressively prosecuting corporations as New York’s attorney general, more than a few reporters were enticed by breathy whispers from Darren Dopp about what Mr. Spitzer would reveal next.

Mr. Dopp, who was the attorney general’s communications director when Mr. Spitzer charged Wall Street investment banks with conflicts of interest that he said had harmed small investors, orchestrated much of the press coverage, sotto voce.

“He conveyed this sense of outrage and how cool a piece of evidence was,” said Brooke A. Masters, a reporter for The Financial Times, who wrote a book titled “Spoiling for a Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer.”

Mr. Dopp’s experience as a reporter, first for The Evening Press in Binghamton and then for The Associated Press, gave him an insight into the care and feeding of a ravenous press corps, Ms. Masters said.

“When he said, ‘This is really good’ or ‘This is really hot,’ it was,” she said.

One of latest tips from Mr. Dopp, 47, who now serves as communications director in Governor Spitzer’s office, may have been too hot for his own good. He was suspended without pay after a report from Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s office found that Mr. Dopp had crossed an ethical line by plotting to use the State Police to gather embarrassing information about Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, to share with reporters. The report also said that Mr. Dopp concocted a false story about why the information had been gathered.

Those charges surprised people who have worked with and around Mr. Dopp in his two decades as a supporting player in state government.

Even some of those who are critical of how the Spitzer administration has conducted itself found the actions that Mr. Dopp is accused of out of character.

“Everybody says the same thing about Darren, that it’s terrible what happened to him,” said Chris Lapetina, a political consultant in Washington who worked with Mr. Dopp on Gov. Mario M. Cuomo’s political staff in the early 1990s.

Mr. Lapetina said he did not believe Mr. Dopp had willfully crossed any legal or ethical boundary. “At the very worst case, Darren got so caught up in this fight that he didn’t see the line as clearly,” Mr. Lapetina said.

Photo

Darren Dopp, an aide to Governor Spitzer, has been accused of plotting to use the State Police to gather information on a Republican leader.Credit
Mike Groll/Associated Press

“I cannot fathom Darren ever knowingly doing anything wrong,” said Chuck Porcari, who worked with Mr. Dopp in the Cuomo press office. “He’s a guy with one of the firmest moral compasses I have ever seen.”

Mr. Dopp, who did not respond to requests for comment, has a long connection to the Cuomo family. Governor Cuomo gave him his start in politics, recruiting him away from The Associated Press in 1988. Mr. Dopp was a favorite of Mr. Cuomo’s and, by some accounts, was friendly with his son too.

“Andrew, I think, understood that Darren served Mario very well,” Mr. Lapetina said. “Darren had a rapport with Andrew as well.”

Mario Cuomo remembered Mr. Dopp fondly yesterday, though he declined to discuss any aspects of the attorney general’s findings.

“I don’t know anybody who knows Darren who was not saddened by what has happened to him,” Mr. Cuomo said, “He was one of the most pleasant, most positive people in the government. He was quiet but never down.”

Mr. Cuomo also recalled Mr. Dopp’s prowess on the softball field. Having been a star shortstop at Union Endicott High School and later at the State University of New York at Binghamton, Mr. Dopp anchored the governor’s softball team.

After several years as a press aide to Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Dopp became the governor’s liaison to the Southern Tier, a move that took him close to his boyhood home. After Mr. Cuomo left office in 1994, Mr. Dopp served as spokesman for Michael J. Bragman, the majority leader of the State Assembly, before he joined the staff of Mr. Spitzer, then the attorney general, in 1999.

Mr. Dopp’s easygoing demeanor served as an effective counterbalance to Mr. Spitzer’s volatility, especially in dealing with the press, Mr. Lapetina said.

Mr. Dopp pressed Mr. Spitzer to maintain his image as a law-and-order governor with a focus on keeping people safe, Mr. Lapetina said. He recalled how pleased Mr. Dopp was after Mr. Spitzer gave a campaign speech to a group of firefighters and endorsed reinstatement of the death penalty.